Builders in suburban New York bet homebuyers have had enough sprawl.Real estate developers have recently begun new building projects in Westchester County, NY and in southern Connecticut that will be more like the close-knit town of Seaside, where Hollywood's The Truman Show was filmed, than the sprawl that characterizes many actual metropolitan area suburbs. Arthur Collins You may be looking for Arthur A. Collins, founder of Collins Radio '' You may be looking for Arthur R. Collins, Washington, DC Political Strategist Arthur Francis Collins , II, president of Collins Enterprises, is behind three such developments in the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of area, as well as others in Norfolk, VA and Knoxville, TN. "The communities we are building or have already built in places like Yonkers, Bronxville and Old Greenwich Old Greenwich is a neighborhood or section in the southeast corner of Greenwich in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The Old Greenwich Railroad Station serves commuters in the neighborhood. are designed to have strong neighborhood identities, easy access to mass transit mass transit, public transportation systems designed to move large numbers of passengers. Types and Advantages Mass transit refers to municipal or regional public shared transportation, such as buses, streetcars, and ferries, open to all on a , easy pedestrian access, and minimal environmental impact," he said. "These projects are a far cry from the suburban sprawl that has characterized most residential development in the recent past." Collins Enterprises is not the only developer constructing communities in the New York area that have higher density construction and that de-emphasize the automobile, but in the firm's 30 years of existence it has been a leader in what has come to be called "New Urbanism New urbanism is an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s. Its goal is to reform all aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. ." "Conditions today are more favorable fa·vor·a·ble adj. 1. Advantageous; helpful: favorable winds. 2. Encouraging; propitious: a favorable diagnosis. 3. than they've been in a long time for this sort of project," Collins said. "We've begun three New Urbanism projects in the last few months." According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Collins, the New Urbanism movement promotes the creation of village-type neighborhoods. Many Americans lived in this sort of town prior to the adoption of post-war zoning laws in most areas. Because of widespread use of the automobile, these laws generally permitted only the creation of neighborhoods designed around cars, and consequently around roads and parking lots. "We are trying to recreate a lifestyle that many people have lost," Collins said. "With these projects, it is possible to work near home, walk to nearby stores and have closer-knit neighborhoods. I think this is something many people yearn for." Collins' company is currently building Hudson Park at Yonkers, a 200-residence project that also includes office and retail space. Also in Westchester County, Collins Enterprises is building 110 rental apartments in a neighborhood-friendly community near that town's commuter rail station. In Old Greenwich, CT, the company is selling residences at Old Greenwich Gables Gables may refer to:
In modern property law, individual ownership of one dwelling unit within a multidwelling building. Unit owners have undivided ownership interest in the land and those portions of the building shared in common. community of townhouses, duplexes and lofts that is arranged around a series of gardens and plazas. Collins noted three trends that will encourage further development of New Urbanism projects over the next several years: * The population in the U.S. will increase to approximately 300 million people by the year 2010. About one-fifth of that population increase is going to happen in the Northeast. "There simply isn't enough land to house all of those people in traditional suburban tracts," said Collins. * The fragmentation of families is also playing a part by causing the total number of households to increase disproportionately. "The data suggests that because families are fragmenting, the number of households is increasing at four times the rate of the population," said Collins. * One-third of the workforce will soon be telecommuting telecommuting, an arrangement by which people work at home using a computer and telephone, transmitting work material to a business office by means of a modem and telephone lines; it is also known as telework. rather than working out of a central office. "People working out of their homes want flexible live/work space. They want to live closer to the cities and towns where their clients and co-workers are located, and they prefer urban areas where they'll have quick access to everything from a bagel shop to a copy shop," said Collins. According to Collins, the best New Urbanism projects are located near transportation nodes like train stations, on waterfronts, or in urban neighborhoods that are already relatively densely populated pop·u·late tr.v. pop·u·lat·ed, pop·u·lat·ing, pop·u·lates 1. To supply with inhabitants, as by colonization; people. 2. . "The projects we're developing in places like Yonkers and Bronxville are all being built on waterfront sites or right in the downtown area," Collins said. "The residents will be living in vibrant, mixed-use neighborhoods where they can walk to restaurants, shops, offices and recreational opportunities. That's a huge improvement to what some consider the sterility of suburban sprawl." |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion